Posted on 08/09/2016 4:07:55 AM PDT by harpygoddess
A legendary battle of western history:
Today is the anniversary of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Thermopylae is a pass in east central Greece between the cliffs of Mount Oeta and the Malic Gulf, and in ancient times, it was a principal entrance into southern Greece from the north.
It was there that the Greeks confronted the third Persian expedition of the Persian Wars - an army of as many as a half-million men under Xerxes. When they found that their position had been turned, however, the Greeks retreated precipitously - all except for a 300-strong Spartan contingent under their king, Leonidas.
Leonidas and his men fought a delaying action in the narrowest part of the pass until they were overcome by the Persians and slaughtered to a man.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
Alliance with Rome and Sparta. 16 When people in Rome and even in Sparta heard that Jonathan had died, they were deeply grieved.* 17 But when they heard that his brother Simon had become high priest in his place and was master of the territory and its cities, 18 they sent him inscribed tablets of bronze to renew with him the friendship and alliance that they had established with his brothers Judas and Jonathan.g 19 These were read before the assembly in Jerusalem. 20 This is a copy of the letter that the Spartans sent: “The rulers and the city of the Spartans send greetings to Simon the high priest, the elders, the priests, and the rest of the Jewish people, our brothers. 21 The ambassadors sent to our people have informed us of your glory and renown, and we rejoiced at their coming. 22 In accordance with what they said we have recorded the following in the public decrees: Numenius, son of Antiochus, and Antipater, son of Jason, ambassadors of the Jews, have come to us to renew their friendship with us.h 23 The people have resolved to receive these men with honor, and to deposit a copy of their words in the public archives, so that the people of Sparta may have a record of them. A copy of this decree has been made for Simon the high priest.” 1 MACCABEES Chapter 14
Inscribed on the monument there ...
But it wasn’t just Spartans. A few other Greeks remained to hold of Xerxes’ horde, including a large contingent of Thespians.
you are correct. The Spartans, thought, had a better press agent.
Too many times, some folks don’t understand that the Bible can be used as a ^history^ text (alongside The Word of God).
The Thespians were able to act like the were more of them.
Yeah, I heard those Thespians could really act. Great actors they were!
Don’t forget 600 Spartan helots, so it was closer to 2000. Some of the Thebans surrendered.
“Nazis with cats” is somehow related to “Cats that look like Hitler dot com”, which is a real site and is pretty cute.
Absolutely not a Nazi site per se, but rather a site showing cats that have unfortunate markings on their faces.
The Maccabees were fighting Seleucid Greeks not Persians.
It should also be remembered that some of the smaller Greek nations sided with the Persians. Herodotus writes of two Greek nations that hated each other so bad no matter which joined the Greek federation the other would join the Persians.
Given the nature (in reality, not a cartoonish movie) of Spartan society and their treatment of the majority Helots it’s easy to see why some Greeks saw the Persians as the preferred option. Better to be ruled from distant Persepolis than a local band that make Samurai look like pacifists. Neoclassical Romanticism spawned a lot of rubbish about idealized Greeks. Still, though, as we are descendants of Celtic, Nordic, Germanic, Italic, and Greek tribes and nations it’s natural for us to identify with that Spartan royal guard defending the pass from an eastern alien horde.
The underdog isn’t always inspirational. Think Nazis as the Allied powers collapse in on it.
Maybe they overacted ...
I was responding to a comment that the Spartans were the bad guys, but they were friends of the Jews. No big deal.
“The Maccabees were fighting Seleucid Greeks not Persians.”
FYI, it is possible that the same Emperor, Xerxes, was in charge for both Thermopylae and Purim. The Scroll of Esther describes the Emperor as ruling 127 provinces in a vast empire, being totally hedonistic, being rash, etc. This is about the same as the Thermopylae Emperor. Thermopylae took place in 480 BC, and according to some Purim in 465 BC. Note that there are also a lot of historians who say that these events were much more widely separated, so maybe is wasn’t the same guy. However, there was most definitely conflict in the Biblical era between the Jews and at least a large number of Persians.
It was actually two battles, one at Thermopylae on the ground, and one at sea, the battle of Artemisium. For three days they held back not only the Persian army, but the redoubtable Persian navy as well, the latter holding a 5:1 advantage in fighting ships. When Themistocles finally sent a boat to Thermopylae to tell Leonidas that he could no longer hold, all they found was corpses. The Spartans had been outflanked by land.
That's the Greek fleet that sailed to Salamis. What is little appreciated is just how innovative the Persians were in this series of campaigns - military engineering in building a pontoon bridge (actually two of them) of ships all the way across the Dardanelles, cutting a canal through the Mount Athos isthmus, amphibious operations during the first Persian War, and a rather sophisticated combined-arms campaign during the second. Sort of a pity logistics isn't more romantic...
Generally, I agree. The fact the movie on the story “300” pissed off the Iranians makes it even sweeter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.